Charita Goshay: What color is common sense?

Editorial cartoons are supposed to be provocative, funny and may even occasionally anger readers. But they’re also supposed to make sense.

Charita Goshay

Editors at the New York Post have uncorked a volcano by way of an editorial cartoon that many took as a racist insult to President Barack Obama. It shows police shooting a chimpanzee, accompanied by the caption: “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”

Cartoonist Sean Delonas vehemently denies that the chimpanzee was a reference to Obama, but rather a slap at Congress. Maybe, but the problem is there’s no reference to Congress on the cartoon. Everyone knows that Obama — not Nancy Pelosi — is the spokesmodel for the stimulus, so is it any wonder some folks might be skeptical?

Planting poison

While there isn’t always a monster under the bed, keep in mind that American popular culture has a history of inflicting such humiliation on minorities, from movies to pancake boxes.

We saw it for ourselves as recently as last year, when a Colorado bar owner tried to conscript the “Curious George” character into a caricature of Obama. Outraged executives at PBS, which owns the rights to “Curious George,” pounced like, well, an 800-pound gorilla.

Stereotypes are poisonous seeds that flourish into presumptions of superiority, and they aren’t always steeped in race. I once had a white person say to me, “Well, you know how those Croatians are.”

Uh, not really.

From Irish “drunks,” to “lazy” Hispanics, to “sneaky” Asians, to “fanatical” Arabs, to “greedy” Jews, to blonde “bimbos,” stereotypes can be hard weeds to kill.

Black stereotypes have proved the most resistant, but blacks, it seems, are the only ones who catch flak for complaining about it.

Making sense

The Post cartoon is a perfect example of why diversity is important. Here’s betting that not a single black staffer saw that cartoon before it was published. Even a paperboy could have told them it was a boycott waiting to happen.

The tabloid, which has kinda/sorta apologized, claims that its critics are behind the protests.

Editorial cartoons should punch, bite, kick and even make you laugh, but they’re also supposed to make sense. Let’s suppose Delonas’ intention really was misunderstood. What’s so funny about a berserk chimpanzee nearly killing a woman?

What does that have to do with the stimulus package?

If you’re going to make readers angry, at least do it for the right reasons.

Contact Charita Goshay at charita.goshay@cantonrep.com

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